I have to say I like what I have seen so far, seems like they have made sensible decisions to streamline the UI and gameplay. I'm sure there will be a few nervous XCOM vets out there worried about the changes, but I'm hopeful they will be OK. I've got my pre-order in, although there is rumour of a really cool digital pre-order bonus so depending what that is and whether it can be bought as DLC or something like that I may switch my pre-order from hard copy to digital but either way I'm getting this puppy.

Just figured I would put this one out there for anyone who hadn't heard about it yet, would love to see the XCOM franchise back up and running at full steam

I've been following this one for a while as well. The Joystiq staff keep gushing about it every time they get to play a demo at a gamer conference. I'm good with what I see and I like that they've kept a lot of the original XCOM elements (turn-based, resource allocation, permadeath for soldiers, etc.)

I think I'm going to pre-order this one.

If there is one thing a remote-controlled, silent and unseeable surveillance/killing machine needs, it’s more whimsy. -- Marcus

The way I see it is there's not much chance of any remake living up to the original, but I think I can enjoy what they have done with this remake. If it does turn out that things could have been better, well hopefully they learn from their mistakes and do an expansion/sequel. I would hate to see this one not sell and be a fizzler sending XCOM into indefinite hiatus.

The other thing is that it's not like the original and Terror from the deep weren't without their flaws, I remember enjoying them but I do still remember they felt quite cumbersome and fiddley at times. Mod support would be great, a more eerie and darker atmosphere would be good too.. I just hope I am pleasantly surprised with it, I'm sure it will be fun but I don't know if it will be great. When was the last time someone really got a sequel right? The only one that comes to mind is the recent Deus Ex that I still haven't played, but it sounded pretty good.

I think youre right, that does show that sequels can be done well but I think it is very difficult to surpass an original title like xcom. Being a picky person/gamer I have criticisms of all those games except assasins creed which I haven't played. SC2 to me is almost a different game than SC1, I'm also in the minority of people who thought HL2 was overhyped, and interesting at first but ultimately very shallow (the physics gimmicks did nothing for me). Even ME2, while it did streamline a lot of things about the game it did take away some of the RPG aspects of the game that I felt were important (and realistically ME1 was very easy to improve upon, it had a fantastic story but suffered from rather mediocre gameplay, and terrible interface).

I think in the case of xcom it's very difficult to streamline the game without taking away depth, kind of in the same vein as SC2. Although on the other hand new aspects like the perk system are a nice way to add new choices in the game. I think it will be a good game and I will have fun with it, even if it doesn't play exactly the same as the original. It's kind of like the Civ series, they have all had slightly different tangents but have all been enjoyable (at least all the ones I have played).

It was XCom: Enemy Unknown(land and space), Terror from the Deep (underwater), Interceptor (flight sim), and X-Com: Apocalypse (future based land). They were all DOS based games.. I picked up the entire series on Steam during a sale, but only the first one plays well.. the others have various issues.

What is the time-line of XCOMs anyway? I remember the game from DOS era, which was awesome. One was on land, one on water. But then, I can't find them on GOG, there is only UFO:after/light/math/shock

Are they from the same series? Are they as good as originals?

What druidcent and yogibbear said. The X-COM games are the originals, the UFO: AFter-light/math/shock were made later by a completely different developer as homages to the X-COM games.

The first two (Enemy Unknown and Terror From the Deep) are generally acknowledged as the best of the original series. TFTD is the more challenging game, but it also has several potential game-killing bugs. For instance, if you research some items in the wrong order, a required research item to complete the game will never show up.

Never played Interceptor, it was generally panned.

X-COM: Apocalypse was a radical departure in style and gameplay in many respects, it can be fun if played right, but it was never as good as the originals IMO and the eerie atmosphere (which I thought was handled best in TFTD) was lost.

Terror From The Deep is significantly more challenging than the first game. However, it includes a few small tweaks to the user interface that I really miss in the original UFO (like being able to reserve enough time units to kneel+shoot).

I picked up all of the XCOM games through Steam a while back. They come pre-configured with seamless DOSBOX emulation, so they run perfectly well under 64-bit Windows 7.

JustAnEngineer wrote:Terror From The Deep is significantly more challenging than the first game. However, it includes a few small tweaks to the user interface that I really miss in the original UFO (like being able to reserve enough time units to kneel+shoot).

I picked up all of the XCOM games through Steam a while back. They come pre-configured with seamless DOSBOX emulation, so they run perfectly well under 64-bit Windows 7.

I'll have to try again.. last time I tried TFTD and Apocalypse, it didn't work for me... Maybe I'll try downloading and reinstalling the files.

blitzy wrote:Some more tid bits about the game, sounding quite promising.. not expecting miracles but it should be decent.

So here's the $60K question: Is this game's promise worth organizing a four-pack group buy, similar to the one going for Borderlands 2?

I would have been keen for a group buy but I've already pre-ordered my copy here, it's 44.99 at greenmangaming.com (includes the pre-order bonus). On steam there is a potential bonus for some TF2 items and free copy of Civ5 if enough people buy it. I'm not sure where the cheapest place to pick it up is (since I live in NZ all the prices I see are different)

ChronoReverse wrote:The other reason UFO Defense is much easier than TFTD is that the higher difficulty levels don't actually work so you're ALWAYS playing on Easy.

Correction, the bug only affect tactical combat part of the game. The harder difficulties still affected strategy aspect of the game. For example, on Superhuman difficulty you usually get raped by Mutons and Ethereals by the second or third month with 1/3 to 2/3 of your sponsors gone.

TFTD was harder because the weapons on average were weaker, the enemies and missions (more difficult terrain to navigate around and less visibility) were tougher.

Molecular Control is a requirement to beat the game on harder difficulties.

Last edited by Krogoth on Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

What is the time-line of XCOMs anyway? I remember the game from DOS era, which was awesome. One was on land, one on water. But then, I can't find them on GOG, there is only UFO:after/light/math/shock

Are they from the same series? Are they as good as originals?

The game is going to be Steamworks DRM

I don't think Firaxis have clarified the timeline for the new game, they are being quite tight lipped about the storyline which is hopefully going to be a good thing. Pretty sure the timeline goes in order of the games, UFO TFTD then the other ones are set in the future.

I only ever played UFO and TFTD, not sure if the others are worth playing but I'm pretty sure the 2 I've played are the best. You can buy the whole old xcom game pack of games for about $15 on steam. Not bad value, but I doubt I would play them once this new one is out.